These high -end apartments are sold at prices similar to the homes of some Chinese cities where average income is far from those of Tibet, With one of the lowest indices in the country.
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Lhasa is administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. (Photo: Diffusión)
17/07/2021
AFP Agency
Under the mountains, The cranes and apartments blocks rise to the sky in Lhasa. The capital of Tibet lives a real estate boom thanks to Chinese investments, But the market evolves at two speeds: that of the officials and that of the rest of the population.
Hoping to bring Tibet closer to the rest of China Beijing invested massively in infrastructure (Airports, roads, Railways) since the riots 2008, following the principle of economic development against separatism.
Your stated goal: make life easier on the roof of the world, modernizing it.
But the works in Lhassa modify the urban fabric of this axis of Buddhism and accentuate wealth disparities, in a region whose inhabitants are divided over Chinese sovereignty.
Near the Potala Palace, occupied by the Dalai Lama until he went into exile in 1959, Workers build tower blocks for Chinese real estate developer Country Garden.
These high -end apartments are sold at prices similar to the homes of some Chinese cities where average income is far from those of Tibet, With one of the lowest indices in the country.
Being Tibetan and a civil servant
As a consequence, The real estate frenzy polarizes the city of 860,000 inhabitants among public sector employees, who have the means to settle in these new apartments, and the rest of the population.
Many civil servant positions are held by Tibetans, but also by people of other ethnicities, especially the hanes chinese, which constitute more than 90% of the population in the rest of China.
In the autonomous region, with one of the highest economic growth rates in the country, were sold in 2020 almost one million square meters of new housing in Lhasa alone, and 28% more than the previous year.
The documentation of the real estate agencies shows more than thirty programs that currently sell homes, as AFP confirmed during a visit organized by the government (Foreign journalists are not allowed to travel alone to the region).
To have access to a property, an official's job is needed "because there are not many other ways to earn so much money", Afirma Andrew Fischer, Professor at Erasmus University in Rotterdam (Netherlands).
"The real estate market only opens if this door has crossed", assures.
Employment race
Under these conditions, Immigrants with few studies that come from the Tibetan rural sector are unlikely to live one day in the new neighborhoods, subraya Emily Yeh, Colorado University Professor at Boulder (USA).
Many of them do not speak Chinese, One of the conditions to work in public administration. Illiteracy also aggravates social fracture.
"On the one hand, around the 10% of the population (of the region) has a higher education degree; on the other, a third remain illiterate”, Afirma Andrew Fischer.
The other side of the coin is Tibetans with a civil servant position. Entering public service in China often means renouncing religious faith, something heartbreaking for many. Having good training is not a guarantee.
“The majority of them work for the State, But more and more young, well-educated Tibetans cannot find civil servant positions.”, explains a Tibetan who lives abroad and asks to remain anonymous.
No data available on the ethnic origin of officials in Tibet.
According to official figures, the hanes, whose mother tongue is Chinese, represent the 12% of the regional population, which increases competition for employment.
“Holy city”
In the old town, The inhabitants often abandon their habitat to make way for shops or hotels for tourists and end up living in the suburbs..
Tibetans in exile recognize that the population benefits from the new infrastructure but fear the visible changes around the Jokhang temple, the spiritual heart of Lhasa.
The street leading to it is home to American fast food chains such as KFC and Pizza Hut. Tourists from other parts of China pose dressed in traditional Tibetan costume.
Seventy years after the communist army invaded Tibet, the city is full of Chinese flags, red lanterns and portraits of President Xi Jinping.
Lhasa, former capital of the dalai lamas, “it is not just a holy city, It also has important political significance for Tibetan identity.", afirma Tenzin Choekyi, researcher at the Tibet Watch association.
“But when Tibetans look at Tibet, ¿what remains of your past?”, he wonders.
Filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen, who served six years in prison for having filmed a documentary about the population's complaints against the Chinese government, believes that “the only objective of infrastructure development is to benefit China”.
“A change imposed on Tibetans with the aim of eradicating their identity and culture can never be compensated by a few real estate programs”, declared from the United States.
